NEW! Download our 2014 Sustainability Report!

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Green Manufacturing of Recycling Containers

CleanRiver® recycling containers and waste bins are designed using environmentally responsible materials made with the highest possible percentage of recycled content available for the required application.

Better and more cost efficient recycling containers through continuous improvement

Our manufacturing processes follow principles focused on continuous daily improvement. Through a disciplined approach called Kaizen (Japanese: improvement), we have been able to reduce our lead times while providing better quality recycling containers and waste bins at a lower overall cost.

Lean manufacturing of recycling bins

We reclaim, recycle, and reuse the cut-offs and plastic debris chips and shavings that are created by the milling and router operations during manufacturing of our recycling bins. These fragments are cycle shipped back to our plastic lumber supplier and are used again in the manufacturing of new lumber.

CleanRiver® also accepts back our recycling bins when they have reached the end of their life, and we recycle the materials yet again. This process continues over and over, closing the loop. Learn more about our cradle-to-cradle (C2C) recycling.

Handcrafted products require hands to make them

When you sell products that are handcrafted you want to ensure that those hands are kept safe. Because of this, CleanRiver® has made an investment in the well-being of our talented craftsmen and purchased a new table saw built by SawStop. SawStop products are designed to sense the moment that they come in contact with any material that conducts electricity and, in a split second, react accordingly. This means that while cutting wood and plastic lumber the saw will zip through the material but at the slightest contact with human skin (or a hotdog in this case) the saw blade will retract back into the table and a specially designed aluminum brake will slam into the blade stopping it instantly. So quickly, in fact, that we had trouble finding a nick on the hot dog that we used to demonstrate the machine to our team. We can all feel a bit safer now that we have this new saw to keep the hands that make our handcrafted products safe and sound.

Learn about what makes CleanRiver
a sustainable company

Download our 2014 Sustainability Report to learn about the goals we've set, how we did in 2014 and what we are doing to surpass those goals this year.